Al-Qaeda number two al-Zawahiri reported injured by US missile

Al-Qa'eda's deputy leader has been wounded and may even have died after a US
missile strike in a tribal area along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan,
according to a report.

Al-Zawahiri has been mistakenly reported killed before on the Pakistan Afghanistan borderPhoto: AFP/GETTY

By Nick Meo

12:24PM BST 02 Aug 2008

US broadcaster CBS said it had obtained an intercepted letter from a Pakistani Taliban commander requesting urgent medical help for Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's right-hand man. Pakistan's military said it had no information about the report.

Chief Pakistani military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said: "There is no evidence or information in this regard. We have no reliable information."

Al-Zawahiri has been mistakenly reported killed before in the remote and hostile area where he is believed to be hiding along with other surviving al-Qaeda leaders.

Many intelligence officials believe the Egyptian doctor has always been the real brains behind Al-Qaeda. He was a key planner of the September 11th attacks. Intelligence sources in Washington told The Sunday Telegraph last year that he has been the group's de facto leader for the last two years, chairing meetings which were formerly presided over by Osama bin Laden who may now be in poor health.

It is believed that al-Zawahiri may have been hit in a strike by an unmanned drone on July 28 which killed Midhat al-Sayid Umar, an Egyptian chemical weapons expert with a $5 million bounty on his head who was considered one of the most dangerous men in the terrorist organisation.

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CBS said it received a letter from Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud dated July 29, with the young warlord's seal and signature. The letter describes how al-Zawahiri was in "severe pain" and said that his "injuries are infected".

Confirming the death or injury of Al-Qaeda leaders is notorious difficult although annoucements are usually made eventually on jihadi websites.